Page 54 of Winter’s End

Evi nodded, though her patience was wearing thin. “If that’s what you think I need to do, Jacob.”

He nodded firmly. “All my friends call me Jake.”

She looked down, turned over a stone with her foot. “I like Jacob better.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “Okay. Jacob it is.”

He led her to the back door. “Evi’s back,MevrouwBeckhof,” he called.

In the doorway, he receded slowly. Evi took in the amber eyes, the even-featured, clean-shaven face. He did look younger without the beard – perhaps no more than twenty or twenty-two.

MevrouwBeekhof appeared in the doorway. “Can you stop for tea, Jake?” she asked.

“No, Ma’am, but thank you. We’re making progress out back, but we need every hand.”

The farmer’s wife nodded. “Gaan, then,” she said. “And you, Evi Strobel…your nose is red with the cold. Come in and have a cup of tea before you get back on your bicycle.”

Evi waved at Jacob’s receding form. “Wednesday at noon,” he called over his shoulder.

She followedMevrouwBeekhof into a neatly scrubbed kitchen. “Dank u, but I -”

“Sit.”

Evi sat, taking in the faded yellow walls of the kitchen, the array of well-used pots and pans that hung over the stove, the Delft dinnerware neatly stacked on shelves.

MevrouwBeekhof put a steaming cup in front of her, retrieved her own cup and sat across from her.

“So, why does a pretty, young girl like you need to learn how to shoot?” she asked.

Evi did not hesitate. “I work for the Resistance. I need to be prepared to meet the enemy.”

The older woman nodded, blue eyes narrowing in a thin, surprisingly unlined face. “Ah,” she said. “I see….but so young…”

Evi’s chin went up the slightest bit. “I will be seventeen next month.”

MevrouwBeekhof smiled, making her unlined face look even younger. “I see. You know, Evi, you need to be careful when you talk about Resistance activities to people you do not know very well – even to me.”

“But you are hiding Jacob - “

“Ja.Still, for your own safety.”

The farmer’s wife paused for a moment, then rose and brought down a blue flowered tin from a shelf over the kitchen table. “On the other hand,” she held out the tin. “A young woman who fights against the Germans needs to keep her strength up.”

Evi could smell the sugary contents before she saw them. Her mouth watered and her stomach began to growl.

“Please, take all you like.”

Evi took a ginger-studded pastry from the tin. “Gemberbolus,” she murmured. “Ginger cookies.”

“Ja.”

Evi’s eyes filled with tears. “My Mam used to make them, before the war.”

“I have used my rations only sparingly.”

The near-forgotten sweetness exploded in Evi’s mouth. She closed her eyes let the tears flow.

ZOE